Kindergartner takes first in chess

With only his head higher than the table, 5-year-old Joaquin Perkins stared at the green and cream checked board lined with brown and white pieces.

Joaquin wasn’t playing a real game of chess Monday morning — he was just messing around with the pieces — but he knows how. The kindergartner took home first place in his age group at a national chess championship in Dallas this month.

Joaquin takes lessons at the Hanley Chess Academy in Huntington Beach and is one of six kids on the national team. Joaquin, a West Covina resident, was the only one in the group to take home a national title.

Shy about his accomplishment, Joaquin said he was excited about his win but was disappointed by his competition.

“I thought I was going to play harder opponents,” he said.

Joaquin isn’t used to playing other kindergartners, said his father, Kele Perkins.

Joaquin has been playing since he was a year and a half old and started taking private lessons with Hanley Chess Academy owner Joe Hanley when he was 3.

Hanley, a master chess teacher, opened his academy less than two years ago at 7390 Center Ave. Hanley started playing chess when he was about Joaquin’s age and has been teaching for more than 15 years. He now does private lessons for both kids and adults in Huntington Beach.

“I still can’t even identify it, but I’ve always had a fascination for chess,” Hanley said.

Hanley said he enjoys teaching kids and believes chess instills in them a number of values, including critical thinking, patience, perseverance and determination.

“I just think the skills kids can learn from it are irreplaceable in life,” he said.

Perkins believes the same thing, which is why he started Joaquin out on chess so young.

“I just think it’s one of the best ways to teach kids certain values,” he said.

Besides Mom and Pop, the first words he learned were that of the chess pieces, Perkins said.

“My view is that you have to give them guidance on what kind of things are important,” he said.

Joaquin had competed in several tournaments when he started going to Hanley. The first thing the instructor did in his lessons was identify Joaquin’s weaknesses.

“He’s great at seeing his own opportunities, but he misses some of his opposition’s opportunities,” Hanley said.

Hanley said Joaquin took responsibility for his weaknesses and worked hard up to the championship. Joaquin won all seven of his games, most in under half an hour and two in less than 12 minutes.

His final game lasted a full two hours — the longest game ever between kindergartners, Perkins joked.

Now that he won the championship, Joaquin said he wants to take a month off from tournaments.

When he isn’t practicing chess, he said he likes to play with his toys and watch “SpongeBob SquarePants.”